Goals Vs. Systems

Goals Vs. Systems

Everyone should have goals in life. How boring would life be if we didn’t have something to look forward to? What if everyone lived life in the present and didn’t think about what would happen in the future?

I recently read an article that stated that it is better to have a system than to have goals. A system is the everyday minutia that goes into working toward a goal. The writer used a basketball coach as an example. A goal for a basketball coach is to win a championship. The system for that goal is to practice every day, review film, and to keep the players conditioned. The writer asked if the coach focused on the system and not the goal, would he still be able to win a championship? And the answer was yes, he could win a championship without focusing on the goal.

I disagree with the author. I think goals and systems are linked and one cannot be better or more useful than the other. When goals are set, a person takes steps to achieve that goal in the present, thus a system is created. Goals are a great way to drive and guide a person to where they want to go. Since the future is an unknown, a blank slate, we need to fill our slate with goals to keep us motivated and headed in the right direction. If the said basketball coach did not have the goal of winning a championship, he would have less motivation to have a good system in place to get him to his goal.

At netlogx, everyone is required to have personal and business short and long-term SMART goals. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. Setting these goals have helped me see where I want to go in my future and using the SMART criteria has helped me create systems to achieve my goals.